Aircrafts generally include several external LED lights each intended for the lighting of an outside area and which are activated as a function of the flight or taxiing phases of the aircraft. The lighting system of an aircraft is thus capable of offering a taxiing function, generally referred to as a “taxi light”, a take-off function, generally referred to as a “take-off light”, and a landing function, generally referred to as a “landing light”.
Take-off and landing lights for an aircraft, generally referred to as “take-off light” and “landing light”, as well as search and landing lights for helicopters are extremely powerful in order to be able to have sufficient lighting range, for example of the order of 200 m to 500 m in order to be able to efficiently illuminate the runway, with regard to the take-off and landing lights for aeroplanes, or illuminate the ground, with regard to the search and landing lights for helicopters. They are thus generally capable of providing several hundred thousand candelas of lighting.
As can be understood, for aeronautical applications, the size of the lights, as well as the light intensity that the lights are capable of providing, constitute criteria that must be considered during the design of the lights. The size of the lights is generally denoted by the PAR number, which denotes the diameter of the light in eighths of inches. Thus, the size PAR 36 corresponds to a diameter of 4½ inches, which is 114 mm, PAR 46 corresponds to a diameter of 5¾ inches, which is 145 mm and PAR 64 corresponds to a diameter of 8 inches, which is 203 mm.
Generally, the take-off and landing lights used on passenger transport aeroplanes and on certain helicopters and which are equipped with a halogen source, are of size PAR 64. The recent lighting systems using light emitting diode sources have similar frontal dimensions. They have a diameter of about 200 mm.
Conventionally, LED lights include a reflector exhibiting in cross-section a section of generally parabolic shape, inside of which is mounted an array of light emitting diodes (LEDs) linked to each other and disposed close to the focal axis of the parabola defined by the reflector.
The document WO 03/095894 can be referred to in this respect. In this document, the light emitting diodes are oriented in the direction of lighting. Generally, the diodes may be oriented perpendicular to the direction of lighting, as described in the documents EP 1 731 423, EP 2 450 279 and EP 2 131 104.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background and therefore it may contain information that does not form the art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.